Even his several biographers can't quite bring themselves to spell out just how ghastly.

He was an abusive, philandering, self-serving, gluttonous egomaniac with a blind indifference to the thoughts and feelings of others.

“If you’re rushing away from the dinner table with your family to check your e-mail,” Fisher said, “it’s affecting your relationship.” … At some level, this idea of “digital cheating” or “remote infidelity” is just a very old concept in new, trendy clothes.

There are two other major stars whose centenaries are close to his - the widely admired Michael Redgrave and the much-loved John Mills. Of the three, Sir Rex is the least missed within the business.

He had a lovely line in playing rotters, rakes and cads, but his behaviour offstage was legendary - and appalling. The star who personified the ultimate suave bachelor and who played Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe's great musical masterpiece) was, in life, comically awful.

To some extent, the Internet has only made these things more visible, better-documented: There are finally texts and emails to back up our suspicions. Conversing by text or direct message is so inherently one-to-one, and so impossibly easy, that the technology lends a kind of intimacy to its contents — a text can be sent from anywhere, with anyone around, and no one else will know what it says.

And then, of course, there’s that much-discussed specter of the online dating industry: the dual blessing and curse of choice.

As if the negotiation of Facebook officiality and the drawn-out dance of flirty texting weren’t obstacles enough, the Internet has visited a new affliction on modern love: It’s called “digital infidelity,” and it’s probably living on your phone.

A new study by researchers at the University of Indiana found that Facebook users in relationships frequently use the site to keep in touch with “back-burners” — exes or platonic friends they know they could connect with romantically, should their current relationships go south.(“With sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s easier than ever to stay in touch with an old flame,” a One Poll rep told the Daily Mail.) Meanwhile, sex researchers have recently begun to treat “remote infidelity” — emotional cheating, via social media or smartphone — as a valid topic of research.And it’s on the rise, the noted relationship scholar and anthropology professor Helen Fisher told Salon.” That kind of vigilance, it turns out, is probably unnecessary. It’s counterintuitive, perhaps, but the Indiana University researchers found no correlation between the existence of Facebook back-burners and your partner’s commitment to the relationship.So digital infidelity, much like sexting and going “Facebook official,” might be just another wrinkle in modern love these days.” asks m Couple, an app that lets you view every text, call and Facebook messages sent from your partner’s phone.